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Gays Teaching

One of the reasons why I like Twitter so much has to do with the people I meet there. I met Brandon Cloud on Twitter and started following his tweets because they were smart and funny…and sometimes a little snarky. However, until yesterday, I didn’t know much about him. When I noticed he’d written a post for HuffPo, I went over and checked it out.

In general, it’s a post about making life changes and taking a different path. I know that sounds cliche, but this one is really different than others. He didn’t just pack up and move to Wilton Manors, FL or Palm Springs, CA. He did something we all wonder about sometimes. If you read between the lines, the post goes far deeper than what’s on the surface, which is interesting because it’s not always easy to pull that off in non-fiction. It’s a delicate balance that requires restraint.

I wish I could share an excerpt with you, but for some reason I can’t, and I don’t understand why. Maybe this is something new with HuffPo. I don’t go there very often these days and maybe they’ve changed things so you can’t share. That’s even more reason to check this out. I don’t link to HuffPo very often and when I do it’s because I really liked what I read there, and I think you’ll like it, too.

Of course there have been gay teachers since the beginning of time, but until recently teaching was one of those discreet professions where you rarely saw an openly gay teacher. I’ve known many gay teachers and I could tell stories. Even though things have changed in the last decade or so, not all gay teachers are openly gay, and with good reason.

This article is one of those meme things where gay teachers speak candidly. Here’s one I thought was excellent:

I’m a gay teacher and I’m terrified my students or their parents will hate me if I come out. BUT this year I’m not hiding.

The article I’m linking to now is sort of a rant. I don’t want to get into reviewing articles, but it’s one of those high drama, “internety,” ranty pieces, with a “WTF,” cheesy words like “uglify,” and a few good examples of why you should never use exclamation points too often. Evidently, the person who wrote it doesn’t like it when people stick out their tongues or lick faces on camera, especially not in bars.

You’re probably thinking: Do people really do that? The answer is: YES. They do! ALL the time. And we have galleries and galleries of images to prove it. The world over, people who would normally be attractive are voluntarily choosing to uglify themselves by extending their tongues as far out of their mouths as they possibly can.

Actually, that’s not what I’m thinking. I’m thinking/wondering if people really care about this at all.

He even brings in a “licensed marriage and family therapist,” to comment.

Ryan Field is the author of over 100 published works of LGBT fiction, the best selling Virgin Billionaire series, a pg rated hetero romance that was featured on The Home Shopping Network titled, "Loving Daylight," and a few more works of full length fiction with a pen name. He's worked in publishing for twenty years as a writer, editor, and associate editor. His work has been in Lambda Award winning anthologies and he's self-published a few novels with Ryan Field Press. You can reach him by leaving a comment here, or at rfieldj@aol.com